Unemployment Rate Without Government Cuts: 7.1%

To be eligible you'd have to be looking for work, and if they're looking for work, they have to take any reasonable offer.

 

If they're eligible for benefits, wouldn't they'd be counted in the unemployment number?

 

I'm not sure most would be eligible for benefits. (The elegibility for most would have expired, I would imagine.) The idea is to be added to the number of people looking for work, which is how the unemployment number is factored.

 

In nearly all states, you're not eligible if you quit or retired.

 

This just made my day. Here I thought the country was still in the shitter and I read something like this and find out that I could not be more wrong. Everything is great! Thanks Obama!!!

 

If this is true, Obama must have an approval rating in the high 60s right?

 

Because they aren't "actively" looking for work. That's part of why unemployment figures are bullshit.

 

Only if they register to collect benefits. And if you register you are required to document your search progress thru the government system. You're required to apply for a minimum number of jobs each week in order remain eligible to collect benefits. I believe the number of weekly applications you have to fill out is 5.

What sucks about the system is that it determines what jobs you're qualified to apply for. If it determines you aren't qualified enough to apply for a certain job it locks you out of the application process for that job in the system.

My wife has gone through this and it's a fucking nightmare. You wind up wasting time applying for jobs you know you don't want & are over-qualified for in order to keep your account active in the system. Then you go outside of the system to find the jobs you want and are qualified for.

 

In California, they have instructions that say fill out the contact information and job you applied for "if this box is checked." The liaison from the unemployment office told us that in 11 years working in that office, he has never once seen that box checked, so don't worry about it. In my six-plus months on UI, I never saw the box checked so I never had to fill out the form.

Not sure if California is unusual, but at least here it isn't all that hard to coast under the radar.

 

I am no longer concerned.

 

The unemployment rate would be 0% if we kept hiring government workers at the rate we did from 1995-2003.